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German coalition parties avert government crisis with pension deal
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday broke a deadlock over a higher basic pension that had threatened the future of their governing coalition. Senior coalition members, including Merkel and SPD Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, sealed a deal during talks in the chancellery that lasted more than six hours, officials said.The coalition between Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc and Scholz’s SPD has struggled to stay afloat for much of the time since it was formed in March 2018 to end months of political limbo following an inconclusive national election. The ... (full story)